PSP main man John Koller went to Gamespot to talk about the upcoming PSP Brite, and revealed a few key facts. He admits the change is "minor," one in a continuing series of changes the PSP may see along its proposed life cycle. Most revealing of all is his comment about battery life: the brighter screen will draw more power, diminishing battery life by 20-30 minutes.

He does say that the now-discontinued extended life battery will make a return, possibly rebranded for use with the PSP-3000 series.

hmm,i am willing to make that trade(if i do ever trade in my old PSP for a new PSP),i have only been 'caught out' once or twice with letting my battery run right down while playing...i am usually ahead of the PSP when it comes to time to charging it...30 minutes off wont make that much of a difference for me...and you can always make it dimmer...right??

Don't know if you guys have heard this, but according to my Sony rep, you willbe able to plug a PS3 controller into the 3000 to play games. Apparently theyare putting this in place specifically for the Resistance game. Things I'm notclear on include: Will it work in any game? Can developers add dual analog support?

I doubt it's true, although it's plausible in that the controller and PSP both have a mini-USB plug, the question is what would it be used for?

The resistance retribution game was designed from the ground up to not need a second stick with its aiming box. Which means the other use is with PS1 games on the PSP.

The only other reason I could see for this is if they planned to expand on the PS3 to PSP connectivity by allowing you to connect the PSP to the PS3 controller much like the upcoming chat pad accessory, then use that combination to play certain games with. But that requires a good chunk of developer support along with some extra pieces of plastic. While cool, I don't see consumers or developers buying into that.

Also, it's doubtful that this feature would only be in the PSP-3000. That's almost the same as segmenting your user base by adding a second stick.

Don't know if you guys have heard this, but according to my Sony rep, you willbe able to plug a PS3 controller into the 3000 to play games. Apparently theyare putting this in place specifically for the Resistance game. Things I'm notclear on include: Will it work in any game? Can developers add dual analog support?

There is a hack out there (that I've never been able to get to work) that allows use of the Sixaxis/DS3 for the PSP. I believe it just allows the player to reassign how the buttons behave. Presumably Sony could do the same thing if they were so inclined. Wouldn't really need a lot of developer support- instead the player could remap the camera controls (usually either the D-Pad or the shoulder buttons) to the second analog stick.

Sony has apparently announced a couple of things for our Japanese folks:

1) You will be able to connect to the Playstation Store through the PSP. Not Remote Play. The PSP's Playstation Store. This will be available this Fall overseas, but signs point to a simultaneous worldwide launch.

2) Sony has announced a feature where, when plugged in to a PS3, you will be able to take games that you normally would only be able to play ad-hoc, and now play them infrastructure. Monster Hunter players, this should be good news for you!

2) Sony has announced a feature where, when plugged in to a PS3, you will be able to take games that you normally would only be able to play ad-hoc, and now play them infrastructure. Monster Hunter players, this should be good news for you!

SInce I never wanted to set up that XLink stuff, this is great news. I will actually buy Monster Hunter 2 if I can play online, because playing alone in the first one got old after a bit.

So, I guess they're really doing some interesting things with th PS3/PSP connectivity, which is a good sign. However, we might not see these features for a while, and as I already said, it's only in the 3000 model. Perhaps this is a vain attempt to stave off piracy by making the later model 3000 which should be more piracy resistant, have more interesting features built into the hardware/firmware.

The PSP store thing was coming for a long time now, so that's no surprise.

But using the PS3 as something like xlink is a perfect idea, they just go through the PS3 PSN servers for matching, this places less burden on PSP developers to create entirely new internet infrastructure for their games.

I still don't know what they're going to do with the dual shock 3 plugging into the PSP and what it has to do with the resistance games. Could there be some kind of cross-game element with using a PSP plugged into a DS3, then hooked up to Resistance 2 for some extra gameplay feature?

There is a hack out there (that I've never been able to get to work) that allows use of the Sixaxis/DS3 for the PSP. I believe it just allows the player to reassign how the buttons behave.

Yup. That's exactly how it works - it just remaps the buttons from one controller to the other. Obviously, the second 'analog' will be entirely digital, but it's supposed to work decently well.

And I haven't heard anything about the 'hook the PS3 controller into the PSP' - of course, I'm also a tad out of date when it comes to my hacking sites. It'll be curious if they know anything about it.

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I still don't know what they're going to do with the dual shock 3 plugging into the PSP and what it has to do with the resistance games. Could there be some kind of cross-game element with using a PSP plugged into a DS3, then hooked up to Resistance 2 for some extra gameplay feature?

There is a Resistance game called Resistance Retribution coming out for the PSP. I got to play it at PAX and I liked it a good deal. Spent some time talking with the devs for it at the Sony breakfast on Saturday. Also got a cool hat out of it with a Chimera skull and crossed rifles on it. I honestly didn't have too many issues controlling it on the PSP...it uses a mechanism where there is a big targeting rectangle in the HUD and if you have an enemy in that rectangle, it will auto lock onto them. If you have multiple enemies in the rectangle, you can switch targets between them all. It is about as good of controls as you are going to get with only one analog stick.

Yeah, I saw that. The game also has a fine aiming mode without the aim box. I guess they plan to have Retribution be the first game to also allow dual shock 3 support if Misguided is correct.

There's also a few more details about the new monster hunter for US and Europe, it'll be called Monster Hunter Unite and it looks like the infrastructure (online) play through the PS3 is confirmed. I guess with the game taking up all the PSP's memory and processor power, they just have to use the PS3 to fill the gap and do matchmaking, friends list, text and voice chat.

For all of the (justified) crap that Sony has received this generation, I have to say that their hardware guys are doing some amazing stuff and are really making good on the "connectivity" thing that Nintendo could never execute with the Cube and GBA.

For all of the (justified) crap that Sony has received this generation, I have to say that their hardware guys are doing some amazing stuff and are really making good on the "connectivity" thing that Nintendo could never execute with the Cube and GBA.

They're definitely doing some cool things with the PSP hardware, which continues to sell well,at least in my store. But where are the software releases? *shakes fist at heavens*I only mentioned the controller bit because it's unusual for the Sony rep to tell me somethingI hadn't heard previously and that one was news to me.

Misguided - not that I'm implying anything, but after a bit of poking around, I couldn't find anything talking about being able to plug your PS3 controller into the PSP. Yeah, you'll be able to connect the two together for ad-hoc play (as already described and talked about in this thread), but if what you heard is true, Sony isn't telling anybody right now. Strange (but still not totally unheard of) that your rep knows something that Sony is holding close to their chest.

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And the truth of the matter is that, as I implied before,I don't consider her the most knowledgeable of sales reps.It could be this whole thing is bogus. Then again, Sony isn'tvery good at marketing important features on PSP (likevideo out on the 2000 series).

The video gaming industry was devastated to learn recently that the recently announced PSP 3000, with its new, brighter screen, built-in microphone and fancy new PS button, may lead to shorter battery life. GameSpot reported recently, based on a conversation with SCEA's John Koller, that higher consumption may reduce battery life by "about 20 minutes." Just soul crushing...

Fortunately, the director of hardware marketing now says that's not actually true, that the PSP 3000 will have an equivalent battery life of four to six hours when gaming, less when watching UMDs. Koller writes on the official PlayStation.blog that "our engineers in Japan worked to reduce the power consumption of the overall system including its components" ending our long national nightmare of slightly reduced up-time due to battery charge. Thank you, God!